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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Setting is More Than Another Character By Karen McCullough

Please welcome Karen McCullough to The Roses of Prose.

A few weeks ago, I was told by a reader that I had “really
brought the mountains to life” in my most recent romantic suspense novel,
Hunter’s Quest. I felt that was high praise indeed. The mountains in question
are the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and I tried hard to work them in
as a necessary part of the story.

I don’t necessarily subscribe to the dictum that setting is
another character in a book because that underrates the power that setting has
in itself. Setting is more than a character. It’s the backdrop for everything.
When done right, it informs all the characters and their behavior, becomes a
part of each scene, and adds to the challenges facing the protagonist(s). It’s
the world the characters operate in.

These are the first two paragraphs of Hunter’s Quest:

The sudden, sharp
crack of a rifle shot, way too close, shattered the peace of a lovely June day.

Moments before,
Kristie Sandford had been driving sedately and musing on camera angles and
light as she reveled in the sun-drenched beauty of a back road in the Blue
Ridge Mountains. Pink and blue wildflowers grew along the verge, just in front
of shrubs in varying shades of green. The scent of honeysuckle drifted in the
open window of the car.

I tried to pick out the details that would draw the reader
into the mountain setting – the colorful wildflowers and variety of green
shrubs growing nearby. Then the scent of honeysuckle teases at a different
sense-smell. But the details do more than just tell the reader what our
protagonist is seeing. Blooming plants show that the season is either late
spring or summer, and their presence in profusion on the road suggests a rural
area. The weather is beautiful. The fact that Kristie notices those facts
reinforces that she’s a photographer with an artistic bent.

And then there’s the detail in the first sentence that
changes everything. The “sudden, sharp crack of a rifle shot.”

Anyone who’s spent much time in the mountains knows that the
sound of gunfire isn’t all that unusual there. But Kristie is a city girl and
the shot isn’t a distant one. It’s close, so close in fact, that the intended
target runs out in front of her car and she nearly hits him.

There wasn't enough
room left to stop. If she swerved sharply enough to miss him, she'd induce a
skid that might take her off the road. The agonized squeal of tires on asphalt
scraped her nerves raw. Her pulse hammered in her ears,

At the last possible
second, he jumped out of the way, diving to the side.

A skid would be super-dangerous here because these are
narrow roads with little leeway. I go with sounds in this case to show her
response to the situation. The tires squeal and her pulse hammers in her ears.

The man in question slides across the gravel until he hits a
tree. Kristie stops to check if he’s injured, and here’s where she realizes
some of the additional challenges and dangers the setting provides.

Her stomach clenched
tighter when she surveyed the area around him. The tree he'd hit had saved him
from a worse fate. A few feet beyond it, the ground dropped off sharply, diving
into a ravine some forty feet down. If he'd gone over the edge he would have
been seriously injured or killed. She couldn’t even think about what would’ve happened
if she’d swerved too much to avoid him.

And then another two men show up, obviously locals, and
obviously not friends to the man Kristie stopped to help. In fact, one of them
is holding a rifle…

This is just the beginning of Kristie and Jason Hunter’s
adventures in the mountains, searching for a missing man.

Aspects of plot and characters are all influenced by the
mostly rural mountain setting. But my two protagonists are both city people and
have fears that the setting will challenge before the story is resolved.
Solving the interlocking mysteries of unexplained fires and a missing person
will require they gain some understanding of how small towns, somewhat isolated
from urban areas, operate and the effects on their inhabitants.

Blurb:
Kristie Sandford's vacation is interrupted when a man jumps out in front of her
car. She avoids hitting him, but when she stops to see if he's hurt, he demands
she help him escape from the people chasing him. Kristie has an odd
"gift" - she occasionally gets warning messages, and she gets one
saying he needs her help or he'll die. Jason Hunter is an NC SBI (North
Carolina State Bureau of Investigation) agent working on his own time searching
for a friend, an investigative reporter who disappeared while tracking down
rumors of corruption in the bureaucracy of a small mountain town. Jason is
grateful to Kristie for rescuing him, but dubious when she insists she has to
continue helping him. Kristie is attracted to Jason, but the edge of danger she
senses in him reminds her too much of the abusive family she escaped as soon as
she could.

Still, the message said he'd die if
she didn't help him, and the messages have been right before.

Karen McCullough is
the author of more than a dozen published novels in the mystery, romantic
suspense, and fantasy genres and has won numerous awards, including an Eppie
Award for fantasy. She’s also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist
in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen
Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and
numerous small press publications in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance
genres. She has three children, three grandchildren and lives in Greensboro,
NC, with her husband of many years.

Karen, welcome to the Roses of Prose. I love a fast beginning, especially if it's a tad jarring or humorous. We have friends who have a cabin near Toxaway Falls in NC. The scene you described reminds me so much of the ride there. It's a white knuckle experience. Best of luck with your newest book.

Welcome, Karen. Wow. What a powerful beginning to a story. What you call setting, those of us who write sci-fi romance (or paranormal) call world-building. Same thing. It's an essential part of the story. It's hard to write descriptions that flow easily without sounding like an info drop. You do it very well. I loved that you included the sense of smell. Too often, writers focus on sight and sound and forget how powerful smell is. Best wishes on your new release.

Thanks for reminding us the importance of setting in a story. Unique settings have become part of my brand, so I work hard to make them real for readers. When a reviewer says: "Now I can't wait to go visit ____, I know I've done a good job. But you're right, we have to be subtle, or we come off like travel agents. Good luck with your book!